Press

7/07/2015

Philly.com: Solar farms, sheep-grazing go hand in hand

LAWRENCEVILLE — Much goes into perfecting a solar farm. There are metal beams and motors and highly technical programming that shifts panels for optimal sun exposure – and the technology is constantly advancing.

But the latest additions to some solar sites in New Jersey are a bit more primal. They have four legs, hooves, and a hankering for grass and clover. You may have heard of them: sheep. Read more …

7/06/2015

The Trentonian: Cherry Grove Farm Serves Up The Fancy Cheese

LAWRENCEVILLE — Normally when I write about food, I do so because I’ve discovered a dish I find delightful, delicious, delectable, and every other overused food adjective

Today, though, things change. Today the recommendation is the garlic peppercorn jack cheese from Cherry Grove Farm in Lawrence, but the recommendation does not come from me. I’m not a cheese guy. Fromage is not my forte.

“No!” my 4-year-old daughter screamed (and may or may not have stomped). “I want the fancy cheese!” Read more…

1/01/2015

NJ Farmer: Cheesemaking Driving Cherry Grove Farm’s Renewal

LAWRENCEVILLE — While the emphasis may be on making organic cheese at Cherry Grove Farm, visitors soon discover the 480-acre farm is much more than a creamery.
Its large farm store sells organic produce, meats and eggs, and customers can see being made, sign up for cheese making classes with master cheese maker Paul Lawler and even go in to the pasture and pet cows. Read more…

11/01/2014

First Farm in Mercer County Awarded Animal Welfare Approval

PRINCETON, NJ (November 1, 2014) – The flock of laying hens at Cherry Grove Farm is now certified as Animal Welfare Approved. This certification and food label lets consumers know these animals are raised in accordance with the highest animal welfare standards in the U.S. and Canada, using sustainable agriculture methods on an independent family farm. Cherry Grove Farm is the first farm in Mercer County to achieve this certification. Read more…

09/30/2014

Wine Spectator: Jersey Gems

These days, there’s no shortage of encouraging reminders that the cheese scene in the United States continues to ripen and mature in exciting new ways. Whether in Colorado, Missouri, Cleveland or, yes, even central New Jersey, you don’t have to look far to find excellent cheeses. So it was with anticipatory relish and a dash of native pride that Wine Spectator‘s David Gibbons made a beeline for a beautiful oasis of cheese farming—Lawrenceville’s Cherry Grove Farm (CGF). There, in just over a decade, a family of longtime local landowners has converted a conventionally farmed dairy that sold bulk milk into a model sustainable, organic, artisan farmstead.

“Nomad Pizza Company in Hopewell, a Neapolitan pizza restaurant with a second location in Philadelphia. Nomad opened its first restaurant in Hopewell in 2009 after two years of working out of a converted 1949 REO Speedwagon with a 3,000-pound wood-burning oven shipped from Italy. It continues to cater parties and sell pizza from the truck at street festivals.

“(the owner) also experiments with local, seasonal ingredients like corn when helping hosts choose party menus. (Among his specialty pies is the Tartufo, made with toma cheese from Cherry Grove Farm in Lawrenceville.)”

Making Mozzarella, a Hands-on Affair

by Tammy La Gorce

“That has not deterred Cherry Grove from including ricotta in a cheesemaking class it started offering about one a month last year. The two-hour class is split between a segment on ricotta and one on mozzarella and burrata–just-made ricotta folder into a warm mozzarella ball.”

“Because Cherry Grove is a dairy farm, with 480 acres, some of the mozzarella made by its students begins with milk obtained that morning from one of its 60 dairy cows, rather than with prepared curds.”

Cheese Making in Central New Jersey

Article and Photo by Todd Royer

“There’s something about cheese. Whether you dream about it, pair it with the perfect dish, or like it toasted, it’s a big part of our cuisine. Cheese is an essential part of many recipes and is very diverse, from bland, to sharp, and everything in between.”

Jersey Cows Make the Best Cheese

By Stefanie Angstadt

“What makes the creamery unique has as much to do with the cultivation of its own indigenous molds as it does with the grass that its 55 milking cows graze on every day. In fact, that’s the factor that Sam identified as the one setting Cherry Grove apart from other cheese makers.”

Cheese of the Month: Full Nettle Jack

Article and Photo by Tenaya Darlington

“In the world of flavored cheeses, Full Nettle Jack (a nod to Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam film, Full Metal Jacket) is a special character. Even if you’re the sort of person who bristles at the mere mention of ‘nettles’—they do sting, after all—you ought to reserve judgment. This bright-tasting cheese is both vegetal and herbaceous with a kick of acidity.”

A Little Curd Goes a Long Whey

by Wendy Plump

“On top of their organic, grass-fed cows, it’s also that their cheeses are very complex. They start out tasting one way and end up tasting another — it’s called a fore note and an end note. It’s very surprising. And it’s that way with all their cheeses.”

Edible Jersey, Winter 2012

My Favorite Jersey Cheeses

by Pat Tanner

“Cherry Grove Farm has just learned that their most popular cheeses, Toma, is a 2012 finalist at the Good Food Award.”

Farmer Serious About Supplying Local Meat, Cheese and, Yes, Eggs

by Teresa Politano

“It’s a sustainable farm — the four-pronged goal here is not to pollute the land, burn up the animals or destroy the neighborhood, while also managing to be economically sustainable. And farming… is now eagerly anticipated.”

Cherry Grove Farm in Princeton: It’s Organic

by Brook Tarabour

“It may be hard to picture a 400-acre farm just down the road from Drumthwacket in tony Lawrenceville. It may be especially hard to picture cows and sheep roaming free in this neighborhood of mansions and boarding schools just outside of Princeton.

But at Cherry Grove Farm, the animals graze on grass covering more than 200 acres of certified organic fields. Then they leisurely laze away the days down by the lake. Pigs live wild in the woods and chickens range free over the pastures.”

“I tried several of [the cheese maker’s] products, and they are extraordinary.”